Mofongo at Slim's

I never expect much out of dining out in Cincinnati.  It's a combination of my past six years living in New York and the fact that my mother is such an excellent cook that nothing in my hometown could surpass her cooking.  Also, I really just crave Graeter's.  However, on a recent trip to Slim's Restaurant in Northside, I was treated to an excellent dish, the Shrimp Mofongo.  Mofongo is a Caribbean/Puerto Rican/Cuban kind of dish whereby plantains are mashed up, fried, seasoned with spices and then mixed with some form of pork.  The mixture is formed into a cup or mound on which chicken, beef or shrimp rest. In the case of Slim's, the pork was chorizo and the protein was shrimp.

Oooo pretty! Patrick McCafferty, owner of Slim's grows almost all of his produce in his garden. Edible flowers included.  I wouldn't praise this spot through and through... service was horrendous and most of the other food was bland if not amateur.  However, it's nice to see Cincinnati dipping it's toe into something ethnic, something experimental and something that, at least in theory, is progressive.